Rhodes blogger and company president, Kenny Farnsworth, shows you how to put a "spring" in your step - or bake up something special for mom this weekend. Never tried asparagus? Now's th...

I am a big fan of asparagus. Nothing says Spring quite like tender spears of asparagus. I like cooking tender asparagus in a myriad of ways. I roast it, boil it, steam it, sauté it and yes, even deep-fry it. The asparagus root is one tasty vegetable.

Now some of you may have had a bad experience with asparagus. It is not much fun to eat when the spears are woody. If I cannot find nice tender stalks, I buy the thickest spears available at the store and peel them with a vegetable peeler. Usually, I can find decent spears and rather than spending the time to peel each spear, I just chop off the bottom 2” of all the spears.

I work at Rhodes, so I just pulled a package of Rhodes Rolls out of the freezer before I left the office for the day. I went to a yoga class and left the rolls in my 90 degree car for an hour. By the time I arrived home, they were thawed and ready to go. Another great method is to put the rolls in the fridge in the morning before you head to work for the day, then they will be thawed by the time you come home.

First step is to roll each roll into a 6” circle. Don’t worry, they do not have to be perfectly round, the bundles will turn out perfectly even if you end up with more of an oblong shape.

My 17 year-old daughter Kristan helped me by rolling out the rolls while I prepared the asparagus filling. After rolling we allowed the rolls to rest for 10 minutes on a plate covered with plastic wrap.

Chop the asparagus into one inch lengths, which takes about 5 seconds. Note: I already discarded the bottom 2” of the spears.

Boil the asparagus in ½” of water for 2 minutes and drain under cold water.

I placed the colander over the cooking pot and allowed the asparagus to drain completely. I noticed that the asparagus was still a bit wet, so I used a paper towel to dab up excess water.

Combine softened cream cheese, mayo, and milk in a mixing bowl. I did not have time to soften the cream cheese ahead of time, so I placed it in the mixing bowl and stuck it in the microwave on high for 15 seconds to soften.

Chop green onions - I got to use a beautiful, new bamboo cutting board that I received from Rhodes’ Yeast Supplier – Red Star Yeast.

Combine green onions, capers, salt, and pepper with the cream cheese mixture. The measurements for salt and pepper are not exact. I used a few grinds of pepper (about 1/8 teaspoon) and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Gently fold in asparagus into the cream cheese mixture.

First, spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray. Then, place a dollop of the mixture in the middle of each roll and from into a bundle. I thought forming the bundles would be the hard part, but it was easy. Just fold the sides up and twist into a little bundle. You just have to be careful not to overfill the bundle.

Here I am still in my workout cloths, brushing melted butter on top of the bundles.

After brushing them with melted butter, sprinkle bread crumbs on top. I ended up making an extra bundle as I was being careful not to overfill my bundles. The little guy on the front right is the extra bundle.

Here they are hot from the oven. I ended up baking them for 19 minutes at 375° F in my home oven, but I have found that oven temperatures vary, so start with the lowest recommended bake time and add a few minutes to reach the desired outcome. The recommended baking time for this recipe is 15-20 minutes at 375° F.

My two teenage step-sons, Gunnar and Sam devouring the bundles.

My daughter Kristan enjoying an asparagus bundle.

The bundles looks beautiful served in a decorative bowl.

In the future, I would like to prepare this recipe for an adult dinner party. I may experiment by replacing some of the ingredients: green asparagus with white asparagus, cream cheese with mascarpone cheese, and drizzling some white truffle oil on top instead of using melted butter.

Overall, my family really enjoyed this recipe and I would make it again. Prep time was 40 minutes, but I took a lot of photos, I bet I could make them in 20 minutes. I hope you will have the opportunity to enjoy this delicious recipe with your family and friends.

Those look really good! And you've got my imagination running wild with all the possibilities! Add in some cooked chicken, maybe try it with broccoli, perhaps some diced bacon!!? So many ways to go with this one! Thanks for the inspiration.